Chapter 1 provides some information about the many Realms that form the Universe, it's a nice original take on the whole Jigoku thing, as, it wasn't necessarily a Realm trying to pervert the Celestial Wheel, but it became Tainted once it collided with Fu Leng.

• Centipede Clan: great to have some fleshing out of this minor Clan and I admit I don't know so much about it from AEG time, but they look cool. They mention 3 possible schools for the minor clan, and the book provides only one, which is fair, we have some guidelines on creating new schools now. The problem is that the Sun Sentinels, that for some bizarre reason have the shugenja AND bushi tags, even though they just mentioned that the Moshi do have a bushi school and it's a shugenja school with no access to invocations, except the ones given in the curriculum which is only Fire invocations, which would be fine, except that 9 pages ago, they mention how the Sun Sentinels are famous for their Air and Fire invocations. I guess someone failed on their proofreading check...

I had discussed this with others that had already given their opinion on the schools but now actually having the chance to read them, let's go through the other schools:

1. Agasha Alchemist: a waste of a page. They are what the Yogo Wardmasters are but with potions instead of wards. Besides, the Agasha Mystic alredy have in their fluff, if not their mechanics, that they already use alchemy to fuel their invocations anyway, so having another Agasha school called Agasha Alchemist, is redundant to say the least. If this was an Agasha smith instead, to do a homage to the old Tamori...
2. Asahina Envoy: another Crane Courtier school but at least they are not Doji. This school is actually interesting, providing another way to play an Asahina that is not a Shugenja and providing another way of playing a Crane Courtier that doesn't have to always deal in favors and gifts.
3. Ishiken Initiate School: after almost 2 years of waiting we finally have the Ishiken. I gotta say I am actually surprised how interesting this school is compared to previous iterations of the Ishiken.
4. Kaito Spirit Seeker: I like the concept of the school, but its school ability and curriculum is crap. Weak school.
5. Kaiu Architect: another waste of a page. We have a Kaiu Engineer already, why have a Kaiu Architect? What are we going to have next? Kaiu Surveyor? Kaiu Interior Designer? (which actually makes me think a Kaiu Shugenja/Sage based on geomancy could be a really cool school for them).
6. Kitsu Realm Wanderer: a way better Kitsu School than the Kitsu Medic from Shadowlands. With an interesting fluff and interesting mechanics. Besides, they are from the only interesting family in the whole Lion Clan. Then again, the old Kitsu Shugenja already did both things, so why not make this a title instead?
7. Shosuro Shadowweaver: ooooh, look at me, I am so edgy I have 3 different tags and even though I have a misleading name, I don't have any Shadow Brand mechanics. Also, I am yet another Shugenja and Shinobi school in a clan where 6 out of 7 schools are Shugenja or Shinobi... It's interesting that they can work better inside obscuring terrain but their school ability is like creating a sphere of darkness from DnD on the battlefield and hope an adversary will decide to go inside? Granted, on Rank 4+ that's the entire battlefield covered in darkess but still... As assassins, the Shosuro Infiltrator from the core works better than them, as Bushi, the Deathdealers are way more interesting, as Shugenja they have a different role than the Soshi, but still feels like a waste of a really good page for a better school.
8. Utaku Stablemaster: another waste of a page. A school that feels like an NPC school or if someone wanted to play the Lone Ranger in a High Fantasy Samurai game... Guys, look, I can summon a ride when I whistle...

• The new advantages and disadvantages are really good and offer some interesting ideas for more.
• Ancestral Swords: I mean, I guess it can have some value for those that want to know what the equivalent to a DnD artifact could look like in L5R but they are more interesting for fleshing out their stories than their actual mechanics.
• Agasha Pattern: that would have worked amazingly with an Agasha Smith school in this book. Instead, I guarantee in the future we will have an Agasha Smith school that won't have this pattern because they won't reprint this pattern in that book.
• Techniques: lots of invocations. It would be nice if we had had some kihō as well, we could have definitely removed some schools to have 4 pages that could be filled with a dozen new kihō...
• Inversions are strange, which I guess was the intention. I like the way they use the dice, focusing on blanks which is like a really insightful idea.
• Places of power are really nice.
• The Bond with a Spirit title is awesome and creates some interesting storytelling hooks. The moon cultist title on the other hand, feels like something that an NPC would have and in this case, it could just be an NPC profile instead, also, it contains a typo where it says a certain technique is a kiho when it is a ritual.
• I am honestly disappointed that there's a single new NPC. I was hoping for more supernatural creatures being shown here.

Overall, I would give this book a 5 out of 10 mostly because of Chapter 1. I had so many expectations for it and waited so long that I feel cheated. I honestly don't have much hope for Fields of Victory AT ALL, after this book. I sincerely don't get why we must have a school from every major clan in each new supplement and I would hope for more techniques, titles and creatures. I mean, the Shosuro Shadowweaver could have been a title that gives a Shadow Brand and would occupy half of a page. We have 4 schools that are slightly do-overs of previous schools or uninteresting that could have been used for kiho.

Shout out for this PDF being released along with the physical book instead of making us wait 4-5 months for it. For that, I am thankful. This book, as all the other "clan" splatbooks of this edition is divided in 3 Chapters. Chapter 1 talks about the Elemental Imbalance, the lands of the Dragon Clan, the Shinomen and the Isawa Forests, the Naga, Nezumi and Tengu cultures and then talk about some Yobanjin Tribes that frequently interact with Rokugan. It would have been a nice lore chapter if it wasn't the incredible amount of errors. I tried to be not so freaking negative, but come on, hire a different proofreader, is all I can say. 3/5

Chapter 2 is where the mechanics meat of the book lies and this book is a huge disappointment. But first, congratulations for not adding to the overall school bloat of the Great Clans, BUT, guys, come on, show the Kitsuki some love. You guys just mentioned the Dragon have a whole village full of actors to train the Kitsuki and nobody though these actors could have been a Kitsuki Shinobi school that also uses the Investigator as test for their stealthiness? We have 3 Agasha Schools but Togashi forbid it we get a second Kitsuki school.

We have the new Minor Clan as the Dragonfly Clan, they are responsible for being the gate between the Dragon Clan and the rest of the Empire. Their "hat" is pacifism and glass making. It's a huge disappointment that we get 9 pages of repeated text from PoW for setting up Yobanjin, Naga, Nezumi and Tengu characters. I mean, if there was no other way of doing it, a separate book just for introducing non-human playable characters would have been better. We have 6 new schools that thankfully don't add to school creep but the Kitsuki could have gotten some love.

• Dragonfly Grace of the Spirits School. Their curriculum is kind of what you expected of a Courtier/Shugenja School, but their school rank only becomes somewhat reliable by Rank 3, then you can finally make sure to never fail a social check again. Weak school.
• Laughing Mountain Hearthstone Tradition School is a Yobanjin school and their school ability is the only one that (thank Doji) does not scale with rank. It's not exactly broken because the TN reduction only applies for Social checks but then they also get access to Kiho. Broken school.
• Shinomen Naga Seer Tradition. It's a Naga school alright, they get to make an illusion and also their tail gets improved damage. The only way to use the tail with a specific kata that they only get at rank 2. Neutral school.
• Nezumi Tattered Ear Explorer Tradition. That school actually gives you the feeling of how a human sized cornered rat would fight. Good school.
• Tengu Mask of Air Tradition, their school ability says you make a meditation check to copy a technique but they never mentioned the Ring, is it Void? Is it the Ring used by the technique? What if the technique doesn't have a specific Ring, can you still copy it? Anyway, you will only be able to probably copy it by Rank 3 anyway. Edit: also, you don't have access to katas until you reach rank 6. TERRIBLE school.
• Woolen Hooves Trapper Tradition, their school ability only comes into play at the whim of the GM. Good luck (or not, it will depend on your GM). Weak school.

We finally get some Kiho, and I will be honest, I wasn't expecting 15 of them, that's 14 more than what I expected. The problem, really, is that it makes the Taoist Blade even more broken, but that's actually a fault of the Taoist Blade than these kiho. The kata are hit and miss. Some really broken kata for use with polearms or staves but sadly, no kata for two-weapon fighting in the book with the Bushi that is the poster samurai for two-sword fighting. Some easily forgetable rituals and that's it for chapter 2. I would put Chapter 2 as 1/5.

Chapter 3 brings mechanics for the Elemental Imbalance, tips for how to play with non-human characters in L5R and diseases. They also bring some new titles, which, par for the course continue to be extremely pricey but at least only one of them gives blanket access to whole ranks of techniques. We get a one page guide for the tenet of Sincerity but sadly, no Dragon Samurai NPC template, Monks NPC nor Yokai NPC profiles. I would put Chapter 3 as 1/5

So, keeping up with my tradition of reviews dividing by chapter. First of all, I would just like to congratulate FFG on keeping up with the AEG tradition of releasing misleadings splatbooks. You thought this book would be all abourt court but it's actually mostly about shinobi. Anyway, let's do a play by play of chapters. Chapter 1 begins with why people built and lived in castles and goes through what is like to live in a castle for samurai. Then it expands on the Winter Court tradition, some of the castles for all the Great Clans and then we get a more in-depth description of the Crane Clan and its lands. They do have a map of the Crane lands and I can't tell if the physical book has a better printing, but the one in this PDF is incredibly blurry. 4/5 because of the blurry map.

Chapter 2: we get to the meat of this book, we ge presented to the novel Deer Clan, whose shinobi and shugenja are apparently all that exist between a stable empire and the Ruinous Powers, nope, wait, wrong setting. Anyway, that is my personal opinion of the Deer, they could have been a nice addition as another source of famous Matchmakers outside of the Crane Clan and thus having some niche role in the Empire with Clans who want to find spouses without the need to owe a favor to a Crane, but we get that and also secret ninja who make sure the right people live or die so balance can be kept. We get yet another 10 schools, being an early sign that school bloating was indeed going to become a thing halfway through this edition lifetime

• Bayushi Deathdealer: we finally get a bushi school for the Scorpion, bonus points for having the most metal name of all the classes. Its school ability is sort of on the weaker side of the spectrum, but if you have the opportunity (pun intended) to find out someone's advantage or disadvantage, it might eventually pay off. Neutral school.
• Daidoji Spymaster: it's the kind of school that I find hard to justify, I mean, you are basically playing M instead of 007 and I am sure that there will be people who will find this interesting, but this could have been a title instead of a full fledged school. Its school ability is also on the weaker side. Weak school.
• Doji Bureaucrat gets double prize of unnecessary school for being yet a second school for the same clan on a splat book and for being yet another Doji Courtier school when we already have one in the CRB. Its school ability is actually quite strong (and even possibly broken just before or during a duel) but it kind of feels like the evil twin for the Doji Diplomat. Strong school anyway, even if somewhat redundant.
• Ikoma Shadow School: it had the potential to be a great school and kind of is if your campaign was able to reach rank 5 and you finally got your hands on Silent Elimination (which is a rank 3 technique that you can only get at rank 5 anyway) and it has one of the weakest school abilities of this book. Weak school.
• Mercenary Ninja is a school not associated with any clan and supposed to be taken by characters whose background is a ronin or a heimin. It gets access to all Ninjutsu permanently with the trade off of not having free access to shuji except the ones in its curriculum. Nothing that a good title can't solve. Its school ability is not that good but not that bad either. Good school.
• Shiba Artist: yay, the Shiba get an artisan school. The problem? Their school ability has the prize of being the worst of the book and that's saying a lot. They could have followed with the previous Shadowlands book and introduced yet some new patterns (even patterns for stuff that is not armors or weapons) but they chose not to and the Shiba Artist is only good enough to reenact the Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore scene of Ghost. Weak school.
• Shika Matchmaker: remember what I said above about the Deer? Here it is. It's does have a somewhat powerful school ability for the Ritual that they start with, the problem being, it only works with this Ritual. Neutral school.
• Shika Speardancer is actually a really strong school with a strong school ability. They kind of get on my nerves because of how the Deer get handled in the book but I have to admit this school is solid. Good school.
• Togashi Chronicler is keeping the tradition of schools that really shouldn't be here but we need one from every single Great Clan and this was they best they came up with. I find the school reasoning sort of weak and their school ability is kind of hard to pin down how good it is considering how very few kiho we have at the moment. I will put as a weak school because of that.
• Yasuki Yojimbo this I had previously put as a good school but people who tested it said it doesn't work too well because of the dice mechanics. Weak school.

We get some more advantages and disadvantages, a new heritage table oriented for the Crane, some new weapons and armors for shinobi. Remember when I said this book was a stealth book about ninja instead of courtiers? We get 9 brand new ninjutsu and 10 shuji. Considering how ninjutsu are extremely hard to be accessed, it kind of feels like overkill that many, but hey, that explains why we got the Mercenary Ninja. On the one hand, this book didn't have a Unicorn school, so it's going in the right direction of avoiding school bloat, but then it just adds 2 schools for the Crane (and 2 extremely redundant ones, at that) 1/5.

Chapter 3 provides a way of setting up your own winter court or normal court games involving the players as well as tips on how to keep the shinobi character(s) involved with the rest of the party. We get 9 new titles, most of them extremely overpriced. We even get a title (Covert Agent) that pretty much functions as the excuse to have "enemy clan" characters working together if the need arises. We get yet another table for opportunities to be spent in courtly scenes. We get a new mechanic called Bonds. They are nice if you invest the XP on them, the problem is, any XP invested in them does not advance school rank (not even by half) this is something that I would personally house rule anyway. Unfortunately, this book, while being Crane centered, does not have a template for Crane Clan NPCs nor new demeanors. 1/5

Chapter 1 provides the lore. It talks about the Shadowlands, how it came to be, its history and some points of interest. Then it talks about Nezumi (without offering rules for playing as one, just NPCs, which is a shame). Then we get a discussion about the Crab Clan, the Wall and how it is to do incursions into the Shadowlands. 4/5 (because we don't get to play as Nezumi, yet...)

Chapter 2 is where the mechanics meat of the book lies and mostly there is some solid useful information and new mechanics but there's a lot of problems (IMO) as well.

• We have the Falcon Minor Clan who are the Ghostbusters Clan.
• We have 8 new schools and this book signals for the school creep that all other books will follow:
  1. Asako Inquisitor is a Courtier/Shugenja school with one of the few mechanics for detecting supernatural abilities (that can be countered by the Soshi Illusionist school but then that would mean PvP in a group). Overall it is a solid school.
  2. Kakita Swordsmith is an Artisan/Courtier school, technically, the other half of the students taught at the Kakita Academy, it is here just because it uses a mechanic introduced later in this book (patterns). The school could have been pottentially broken IF there were more elaborate mechanics for crafting items that used opportunities, as it is now, it's neither strong nor weak school.
  3. Kitsu Medic School. It feels to me as the first waste of a good page of many to come. I get giving the Kitsu a school that is not a Shugenja. It's technically an Artisan/Bushi school but it doesn't do anything artisanal at all. It has a really strong school ability for support during a skirmish but it feels out of place for the family. Mechanically though, it's a solid school.
  4. Kuni Warden (Monk). It is weird for the Crab to have a monk school but this school has one of the best anti-shugenja ever. Give your character a kusari-gama (found later on Courts of Stone) and shut up everyone trying to cast something. Good school.
  5. Mirumoto Taoist Blade is a Bushi/Monk school and the answer to what happens if you cross a Togashi Monk with a Mirumoto Bushi. MTB is what you get. As a GM be prepared for the MTB spam kiho left and right while attacking with a katana and finally making kiho OP. Broken school.
  6. Moto Avenger is a Moto Shugenja who basically worships the o5R Shi-Tien Yen-Wang. It has a cool school ability allowing for it to act as support or damage dealer as the need arises. Good school.
  7. Toritaka Phantom Hunter is the Falcon Shugenja. Supernatural creatures have a lot of difficult hiding from them and by rank 4 they can awaken (temporarily) their weapons and go melee on supernatural creatures which is always cool. Good school.
  8. Yogo Preserver is another Yogo Shugenja. Lorewise, they also revolve around paper magic, but where the Yogo Wardmaster created wards, this one creates animated paper assistants who are insanely broken and overpowered (shikigami) with a school ability that allows the school to have multiples of them and spam them. Broken school. DO NOT ALLOW IT. ALLOW IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!
• We get more Shadowland related advantages and disadvantages and another heritage table focused on Crab characters.
• We have more weapons now, and the introduction of siege weapons and shield. Shields are OP but will become even more once you get your hands on Path of Waves.
• We get Signature scrolls which was a way to provide Shugenja with some cool abilities added to their invocations but it was poorly implemented and never showed up again.
• We get a new mechanic called patterns. They are applied to items (almos exclusively weapons and sometimes armor). This could have been a new group of techniques with actual ranks and stuff and sort of the technique focused for Artisan tag, instead, they cost varying values of XP (where half of it helps advance your rank), it was a good idea implement poorly, in my opinion.
• We get some Jigoku Artifacts and Crab artifacts as well. Most of the time they will be narrative devices.
• We get 1 sole new invocation and 2 rituals, one of which deserves special mention on how broken they are. DO NOT allow a player to have Craft Shikigami, it doesn't matter they can only be used once per scene. The fact that they give the shugenja an auto successful invocation with 2 bonus successes and 2 opportunities makes them extremely broken when a Shugenja can learn an invocation that they have a poor Ring value but leave the Shikigami (that is created with a Void/Artisan check) to cast for them.
• Finally, we get a ton of Maho.

I would put Chapter 2 as 3/5

Chapter 3 brings expanded rules for Oni generation. Let me tell you, a powerful oni can be really, really powerful, something that can easily wipe out a party of even rank 5 characters. It also brings tips on how to roleplay Tainted/Afflicted characters, provides new demeanor and template for NPCs and 4 titles Shadowland/Tainted related titles that are really interesting (even if a little bit broken) but that's a problem I have overall with how titles were implemented in this game. 4/5

This book offers new ways of playing in Rokugan without being a Clan Samurai. It also offers new techniques, advantages and disadvantages and guidelines to creating your own school. My only caveat is that I feel this book could have been released later down the line considering we still have so much more pressing stuff like better rules for mass combat and fleshing out monks.

This book, as all the other "clan" splatbooks of this edition is divided in 3 Chapters. Chapter 1 discusses what an army composition looks like for the Rokugani Clans (which I find hilarious how the "iconic" units for the Dragon and Scorpions are the Togashi ise zumi and Shosuro infiltrators), how and why armies are raised and battles are fought across Rokugan and the history of major military conflicts in the 12 centuries of the Empire. It also contains a more in depth description of the Lion Clan and their lands (with a map that points the Kitsu Tomb being located in the same spot as the Castle of the Deer from Courts of Stone). 4/5

Chapter 2 is where the mechanics meat of the book lies and mostly there is some solid useful information and new mechanics but there's a lot of problems (IMO) as well.

• We have the new Minor Clan as the Badger Clan, they are responsible for defending the Northern border of the Empire roughly between the Dragon and Unicorn lands. Their "hat" is sumai and making cheap weapon and armor.
• We have 10 new schools and if you tought that school creep was reaching the point of redundant schools, this book took that finally up to 11.
  1. Agasha Ascetic is a bushi/shugenja school trying to be the spiritual heir of the old Tamori Shugenja school. Their school ability allows them to toughen up when channeling invocations and is actually a nice different in flavour school for the Agasha compared to the Agasha Alchemist. Also, now the Agasha have 3 schools, which seems to be the number they are mostly aiming to of 3 schools per family which will takes us roughly to 78 schools for the Great Clans. Good school.
  2. Akodo Soldier. What is there to say about the Akodo Soldier? For one, it was not play tested. That's for sure. Someone just look at it and thought. Well, it does look mechanically sound This school is broken beyond all repair and I would give the same advice I do for the Yogo Preserver on Shadowlands. DO NOT ALLOW IT. Broken school.
  3. Daidoji Harrier School has a cool but hard to pull off school ability that is also possible (in theory) to be used in mass battles but just even harder to pull off there. Good school.
  4. Hida Battle Leader is another example of a school that doesn't have a reason to exist. It's there just because FFG believes every clan needs a school in every splatbook and that was the best they could come up with. This school could totally be replaced by just playing a Hida Defender that also has a title like Gunso or General. Neutral school.
  5. Ichirõ Grappler is the school for anyone who likes to play unarmed brawlers. Just grab them or knock them out and then just keep hitting them. Good school.
  6. Ichirõ Ironsmith is just a weak school. Once per game session when rolling an artisan skill with a weapon or armor you can reroll as many dice as your school ranks. Just make an Ichirõ Grappler who also knows Ichirõ patterns and you will be as good as the Ironsmith. Weak school.
  7. Ide Messenger is a solid school if you want to play an Ide that is an actual diplomat instead of a merchant. Its school ability is quite powerful for Intrigue conflicts. Good school.
  8. Isawa Tensai. I get it, they existed in previous iterations of the game and people would grab their pitchforks if the words Isawa Tensai were never actually printed anywhere, but considering how Celestial Realms doesn't even mention their existence when discussing the Phoenix Clan, should we still need them? Couldn't this school be replaced with some sort of title where a Shugenja picks a favorite element? Neutral school.
  9. Matsu Beastmaster is a powerful school whose main weakness is to always remain in Water Stance to better benefit from their beast(s). Good School.
  10. Yogo Penitent. Yet another Yogo School. Surprisingly, this is one just a Bushi/Monk school, with no Shugenja. Their school ability is once per scene but you can spend VP to use more times. Although I find the theme of the school strange, it's an actual good school.
• We have more weapons now, most of them trying to make variants of spears that are actually good and useful (compared to the yari found in the CRB). We also have rules for gunpowder (called blasting powder) and yet more patterns. While I do think the idea of pattern is good, I think the way they were created was a miss. They could have acted as techniques (also costing 3XP) and providing uses for opportunities when crafting/refining items.
• We finally have 3 new Kata for Unarmored attacks and a lot of Shuji and Rituals, one of them in particular, extremely broken (stares at Beseech Togashi's Wisdom). We also get more Ninjutsu, some of them make total sense for other Shinobi schools released before but because no school except Mercenary Ninja has blanket access to Ninjutsu, you would need to discuss with your GM any trade offs or whatever.

I would put Chapter 2 as 3/5

Chapter 3 brings expanded rules for mass combat. How to amass, train and keep an army. It brings battle zones which is something mass battle was missing and a new action for mass combat to rapid move your cohort across the battle zone. Unfortunately, Water Stance will still suck because all Mass Combat actions except rally are also movement actions. The chapter also brings rules for doctrines and equipment upgrades for the army or cohort which is really interesting such as specific clan doctrines or even creating specialized cohorts inside your army like sappers, medics, etc... Most of the problems I see is regarding the cost of mercenaries and the cost of ransoming a samurai. L5R still doesn't have any idea what to put as cost of stuff and at this point why even bother? We also get a bunch of new titles. I have a particular problem with how titles were handled in this game, but suffice to say that not all titles are created equal and most of them demand an insane amount of XP for an underwhelming ability or they demand an even more absurd amount of XP for an ability that would be okay, but as always, it's just best to spend XP increasing your school ranks. 2/5

Also, not related to the overall quality of the book, but could something be done about the long interval between physical and digital releases of L5R books? The last 2 books took between 4 and 5 months for the PDF to finally be released. Some people can't or won't, for many reasons, buy a physical book.

This new take on L5R by FFG (now EDGE) presents some novel ideas on the old roll and keep. the novelty dice might look like a cheap money grab (which I'll partly concede) but they work marvelously with the new system. My only complaint about the book and the main reason why I give 3 stars instead of 5 is because of chapter 6. Chapter 6: Scenes and Conflicts is the meat of the system, providing rules on how to play the many situations where players face opposition. The problem here is twofold. The system tries to be a narrative and tactical system at the same time and accomplishes neither. So you can have situations where going strictly by the rules, a samurai with a katana dueling someone with a bow can hit the bow user even if they are out of reach, also, Duels provide many different actions but the only one worth taking is always attacking, so forget about the old Iaijutsu duels where one strike decided the victor. Intrigues, the "social conflict" provides few examples and not enough guidelines, so a rookie GM might have trouble adjudicating an Intrigue scenario. Skirmishes, the default combat scenario works only if everyone is already adjacent to everyone else, because tactical moving in this system doesn't work. Finally, Mass Combat is awful, it takes forever and clearly it wasn't playtested enough because just like duels there's only one right choice and that is kill the opposing commander. Finally, the book is highly disorganized, with information being found in unexpected places like sidebars in a previous chapter. I have hopes that with Edge taking point now, they will plan on releasing a revised edition of the corebook where they fix chapter 6.

Simple mission: find someone, get paid in the end. It presents some of the major players for the campaign with extra possibilities of earning money. Plus, it has Maria Mercurial as background.

Unfortunately my gaming group disbanded before we played this mission. The idea of this mission is a good one, but it relies a lot on the GM's ability of improvising, specially in the begining.

Nice introductory adventure to bring new players to the complex setting of L5R.

Great first edition book with a lot of fluff in it that can be easily used in fourth edition to bring back information from the 50's to the 70's. Plus, it has one of the best shadowtalks EVER!

I didn't like this book so much as the older "Way of" books of first edition, the fact that this was during the time AEG decided to turn the game into a D20 didn't help either.

Really liked the mission, it has a nice twist in the end that my players joked about it thinking it was too easy, just to discover it was. It's kind of a milky run, unless the GM really decides to tough it up. And since 2 of the 5 players were playing for the first time, it was simple enough for them to not feel lost what to do next.

Very nice tool for a GM indeed. My only criticism is that it does not have the social skill modifiers table (perhaps it is just that my group use them a lot, and I think it would be nice to have it in a screen)

I was very disappointed with this book. I hoped it would be a book about the state of warfare in the Sixth World. Instead, half the book talks about Bogotá, as if the entire war between Aztlan and Amazonia happened there. By the way, the book HAS NO MAPS. NOT A SINGLE ONE. The other half talks about other hotspots, that, also, make no sense, given past fluff. The only chapter that really has any salvation, is the one about new rules and gear and even then, you should take care with some of them (some of them existe purely for munchkinism). I had really high hopes for this book, perhaps, that's why I was so disappointed in the end...